Tuesday 1 December 2020

December 2020 IPMS Ottawa On-Line SHOW & TELL

Welcome to IPMS Ottawa's ongoing monthly SHOW & TELL, which allows club members to show off their completed work despite not being able to attend group meetings. Each member is invited to send in up to three photos of a model and some explanation. December marks our eighth (8th) on-line show & tell. We thank all of our members and builders for keeping alive the hobby. The theme this month is OUT OF BOX (OOB), but everything is welcome.

THANK YOU TO ALL PARTICIPANTS, and KEEP BUILDING. 

! Miniature world domination !

Enjoy the show, and we all hope to meet again soon.


FINISHED MODELS



CHURCHILL TANK (Dragon)
This tank landed on Mike Green (west side of Juno Beach) on D-Day, but unfortunately never left the beach! It attempted to cross what was believed to be a shallow water filled ditch, but it turned out to be much deeper (an old bomb crater) and the crew (6) had to escape under enemy fire; only two made it. The stranded tank had some fascine bundles laid on it and eventually a small bridge so vehicles could pass over it to advance inland. In November of 1976 it was removed from its resting place and restored and now remains as a monument to the brave soldiers that came ashore that day in June 1944; very near to where it was buried!
The plaque with this tank reads;
26 ASSAULT SQUADRON ROYAL ENGINEERS // 7 CANADIAN INFANTRY BRIDGE
THIS TANK LANDED ON GRAYE-SUR-MER BEACH AT H. HOUR ON D-DAY
AND WAS STOPPED ON ITS WAY INLAND 100 METERS SOUTH OF THIS SPOT.
THE MEMBERS OF ITS CREW WERE KILLED OR BADLY WOUNDED.
This was a 'funny' tank, designated AVRE (Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers) and was used to destroy fortified targets. The weapon was called a spigot mortar and fired an eleven inch diameter; 40 pound round, commonly referred to as a 'dustbin'; garbage cans in Britain are called dustbins!! One of these tanks on D-Day was called to assist some troops pinned down on the beach by a bunker with an AT gun that had knocked out several Allied tanks. The AVRE was able to approach the bunker from an angle that did allow the AT gun to bear on the Churchill; small arms fire just bounced off. It fired the 'dustbin' and destroyed the bunker, allowing the troops to advance off the beach! Another incident happened a couple of weeks after D-Day, with an AVRE advancing thru a village and as it approached a cross roads a Panther crossed in front of it!!! The crew hurried and loaded a 'dustbin' and fired at the Panther, it missed BUT struck a telephone pole very close to the enemy tank and exploded, at which point the Panther stopped moving. The AVRE crew did not stick around to find out why and made their escape!!!
Work done – drilled out hull & turret machine guns; thinned the mortar barrel; decals, this kit (Dragon) & a few from Matchbox AVRE, rebuilt intake covers with thinner plastic.




Da Red Gobbo (Games Workshop 28mm)
OOB - It's that time of year, time for Da Red Gobbo to bring some Christmas cheer! This plastic figure from Games Workshop represents Da Red Gobbo, a goblin socialist revolutionary who, in addition to fomenting unrest among the Gretchin proletariat, is also spreading the spirit of the holidays.
This was a limited-edition Christmas 2019 figure from Games Workshop, which I received as a gift last year and finished before COVID-times. It had about eight parts on one small sprue and fit together beautifully, and is just a wonderfully whimsical model.
Brian Latour



Kria the Huntress (Forge World 28mm)
More very tiny, very expensive resin. Kria here is a death-maiden, a bounty hunter from the Underhives of Necromunda resurrected from the dead and back for more .
This model consisted of 7 small, very detailed resin pieces, not including the base. My 2/0 Raphael 8404 brush got a good workout on all this detail. Once I got her together, cleaned up any mold lines, and laid down a coat of primer, it took about two evenings at the workbench to finish her off.
Brian Latour



C62 形 つばめ Steam Locomotive (ARII 1:50)
Japan’s most famous locomotive is undoubtedly the venerable Class C62, 2-3-2, three drive axles, steam engines which served Japan National Railways for a quarter century from 1947-1973. The forty-nine C62 class, built by Hitachi and Kawasaki, were Japan’s largest and the fastest steam locomotives. C622, modelled here, still runs in the Kyoto Railway Museum. It sports stainless steel swallows on the smoke deflector showing it hauled the famous Tsubame (Swallow) Express between Tokyo and Osaka.
This is the huge 1:50 sccale kit by ARII (#356029), and is nearly a half meter long. The kit is very complex, and the running gear is almost operational. The running gear is built with plastic parts secured with metal screws and bolts. Although large, it lacks a lot of detail which could have easily been moulded in. The cab could use a lot more detail. Also, the running board walkway does not sit properly on the boiler sides or at the front, and this meant using a fair amount of epoxy to hold and fix. All of the tyres were electro-plated silver, so all of that had to be removed. I found that a couple of hours in 'Greenworks' cleaner removed everything while leaving the part shiny and perfect. Plans were missing, but emailed to me by ARII. Paint is mostly Model Master ‘Engine Flat Black’, with a large amount of Vallejo powers for weathering and rusting and soot.
Sadly, construction took six years, with the vast majority of the work taking place during the current Covid-19 situation. About 95% of the work took place in the past six months.
John Clearwater



Horton Go 229 (Revell 1:72)
Horton Ho 229 or the re-engineered Gotha Go 229 Jet Flying Wing.
Marc Racine



Douglas Boston (Airfix 1:72)
Vintage Douglas Boston/Havoc A-20.
Marc Racine



OSU2 Kingfisher (Monogram 1:48)
Vintage OSU2 Kingfisher WWII floatplane. Tough little catapult launched US floatplane used in the Pacific theatre.
Marc Racine



Heinkel He177 (Airfix 1:72)
Vintage Heinkel He177 Greif (Griffin or Gryphon). WWII German guided missile bomber. A mostly failed attempt at a heavy bomber by the Germans, problematic engines and a bad concept as a dive bomber. Great looking plane though IMO.
Marc Racine



Schonfeldt "Firecracker" (Williams Bros 1:32)
Schonfeldt "Firecracker" racing plane. Designed by Keith Rider, and with Tony LeVier as pilot it was flown with great success in both the Thompson Trophy and Greve air races in 1938 and 1939. 
Marc Racine



Hellcat (Eduard 1:48)
This is my latest effort during Covid. My fifth, I believe. 
It is the Eduard Dual Combo. Not quite OOB, as I added the Löök instrument panel. The kit includes everything you need, photo-etch, paint masks. 
Overall, an excellent fitting kit. A bit over-engineered in my view. The main landing gear includes eight parts. To paraphrase Amadeus Mozart "too many parts, too many parts!"
The colour callouts are Gunze, God's acrylic paint, now available in Ottawa!!! The slate gray is wrong. It is not olive drab, H 52. I used the Testors enamel slate gray. Much closer.
I did the Hellcat flown by Sub/Lt Foster, HMS Indomitable,  April 1945. It has the Pacific Fleet roundels, no red, and resembling the star and bar to avoid blue-on-blue incidents. Foster was one of the Fleet Air Arm's Hellcat aces. 



P-38J Lightning (Monogram 1:48)
P-38J Lightning flown by the top-scoring US pilot of WWII in the Pacific, Richard Bong (40 claimed). Vintage Monogram kit from the 1960's and actually quite nice and easy to build.
Marc Racine



T-80 Tank w. All-Female Crew 2019 (Revell 1:72)
 This is the 1:72 scale model of the T-80 third generation main battle tank as it appeared at the 2019 Army Games in Alabino, Russia. What made it special was that this tank was crewed by what Russia billed as their first all-female tank crew. Anastasiya Baranova, Marina Pushkareva and Daria Sirotenko are Russian Army doctors who volunteered to be tankers. The vignette shows the T-80 flying off an abutment at full speed before firing on a target. This tank can reach about 70 km/hr. Not bad for 43 tonnes!
The T-80 tank was designed by Nikolay Popov at the SKB-2 design bureau of the Leningrad Kirov Factory (LKZ) from 1967 through 1975 as Project 219; and was built in three different factories. The T-80 was famous as being the first gas-turbine powered tank made by a major Cold War country. Since entering serial production in 1976, over 5600 units have been completed. Russia now has only about 500 in active service and over 3000 in storage, as the type is replaced by much newer tanks.
Paint is mostly Tamiya acrylic with Vallejo powders. I bought the kit used from Hobby Centre in Ottawa as a fun nine day Covid-19 project.
John Clearwater




WORKS-IN-PROGRESS


Canadian M113 A2 - TUA (Tamiya 1:35)
Canadian M113 A2 - TUA basic kit (Tamiya #35265)
Production Legend: M113 TUA Conversion set - LF1281
SKP Model: Lenses and tailights for M113A2 Can - SKP 261
RMA 35203 Canadian license plates part 2 (decals)
M113 series track set - TL-3503
Patrice Tirmarche



Mil Mi-24 Миль Ми-24 (Zvezda 1:48)
This is definitely not OOB as I’ve gone and added all sorts of lines and hoses in the engine bay of the Hind. I’ve also added a Quinta Studios cockpit. The kit is decent. Not at the level of Tamiya but not too far behind. The kit has the option to open the engine bay so it is worth the effort to dress up the engines. The Quinta cockpit is far better than the kit parts and it’s incredibly easy to install. 
Hope everyone is doing well and I look forward to seeing everyone’s models when the meets resume. 
Chris Wallace



Battleship Gun Turret (Takom 1:72)
This is a new kit from Takom, who have recently started doing kits in 1:72 scale, until now only armour. These kits are fantastic models and a lot of small scale armour modellers anxiously await the next release from this company.
This kit is a sharp left turn from armour - it is the forward turret from the IJN Battleship Yamato! Thank god they didn't do the complete ship; I haven't won the lotto - yet. The turret is huge, in the first pic it is beside the Modelcollect kit of a turret from the Gneisenau, a WWII battle cruiser with 11 inch guns, Yamato had 18 inch guns!! Above the smaller turret is a 1:72 model of an Abrams tank.
The second pic shows the base for the turret and the gun turret lower plate, the base is a one piece mould!!! The boxy thing is one of the turret range finder extensions and the sprue shows (upper left) the stanchions that go on the top of the turret, they are very small with 2 holes in each one for rope!!! I was very pleasantly surprised to find only one of these broken after part of the trip (from Hong Kong) was a 30 day crossing of the Atlantic. The package went a new way to Canada: first from Hong Kong to Holland then to Canada. It was a speedy trip (in these times) to Holland and then tracking said it was on it's way 'to destination' on Oct 18 and arrived in Toronto (???) on 18 November?)
The next and last pic shows the etch plate from the kit and the rear of the gun barrel and the canvas shroud from where the barrel enters the turret. The long pieces of etch are some nautical thing I have forgotten which the sailors can tie rope to, in this case most likely to clean or paint the turret. The ladders used to climb onto the turret are reproduced as plastic parts and survived the trip very well.
Takom has since announced a turret from the Bismark so who knows what will be along after that, Fujimi, IIRC, has produced a modern turret from one of their cruisers which is quite similar to the American counterpart, but, in 1:70 scale. Oh well, close enough
Hopefully soon we can view these kits in person!!!
Graham



Somua S-35 (Meng 1:35)
My first armour model ever -- didn't quite get it done in time for this month's show and tell though.
Brian Latour

Citroen 11cv (Tamiya 1:35 )
I am building something a little bit out of my usual scales with this Tamiya Citroen. One of the things I like to do is research the actual car, and figure out what year it represents. According to all my data, the model represents a 1938-42 Citroen 11BL (L is for legere, or light, which is a bit shorter and narrower than an 11B), though it could represent an earlier model if the wheels (Michelin Pilotes) were changed for some simpler rims. As with all Tamiya kits, it is well molded and detailed. One area where Tamiya eschewed accuracy for ease of assembly is with the side windows. On the kit, the doors are moulded with a ledge for the window to rest against, and the instructions recommend that the chrome trim should be painted on the glass. If you look at photos of a 1:1 Citroen, you will not see any chromed window moldings, as well as very thin window frames It didn't take long to trim them down to a more accurate portrayal of the real thing. This is the first serious building I have done in a while, due to my work schedule. COVID has kept me working since September, but I am glad to have some time off over the Christmas holidays.
Ken Nesbitt

2K12 "Kube" (1:35 Trumpeter)
One months later...  the Soviet 2K12 "Kube" ("Куб" cube) mobile low to medium-level surface-to-air missile system designed to protect ground forces from NATO air attack. It was used in 1973 to destroy about 40 Israeli aircraft. ... Now with track links and missiles and paint!
John Clearwater

Not a model, but model related
I recently completed a base for a to-be-later-revealed model. Part of the base as included in the model kit, but I extended the sloped, shell-blasted landscape several inches using sculpted foam. In the process, I learned (the hard way) which adhesives CAN be used to glue foam together, but more importantly I learned what CANNOT be used on foam -- unless the goal was to find out what will reduce foam to a globby, gooey mess, (in which case I succeeded spectacularly several times). I used Vallejo and AK mud products, various pigment powders, as well as stones, twigs, and leaves courtesy of nature. Moulded-plastic trench wall sections (broken) were replaced with scratch built wooden counterparts, as nothing replicates wood quite like real wood. Scratch built wooden side support walls were scratch built... just because. In the end, I can honestly say I am happy with the results. I am sure the local hobby shops were getting sick of me running in to pick up one forgotten item or another, but it was nice to see some friendly faces even when covered by masks.
Glenn Cauley